In the restaurant and food service industry, one of the primary considerations in providing efficient food preparation and service is the manner in which food products are to be cooked or otherwise heated. To this end, many establishments employ commercially-sized ovens and like devices which heat food in a conventional manner by placing the food within the heated oven chamber.
While such cooking arrangements are in widespread use, such use is not without certain inherent drawbacks. For example, typical commercial ovens are generally designed to be continuously switched on, that is, the oven is heated to its normal operating temperature at the start of business hours and left to operate continuously throughout the business day. Unfortunately, this can detract from efficient operation of the unit since many restaurant establishments experience peaks in their business only during certain times while they are open, such as at meal times. Thus, there are periods during which the oven is switched on and ready for use when there is little or no business.
Further, the chamber of most typical commercial ovens is only accessible from one side, usually through a hinged door or the like. This not only mandates that the oven be repeatedly opened and closed for removing cooked products from the oven or for placing food products to be cooked into the oven, but also detracts from convenient use of the oven since individual orders being prepared in the oven can sometimes be mixed-up. Naturally, this detracts from efficient food preparation, and may result in customer dissatisfaction.
A further drawback associated with the typical commercial oven relates to the manner in which the oven cooks or heats food. While the normal baking process by which a conventional oven cooks is well established as providing acceptable results, the period of time required for the required cooking or heating may be unacceptably long for some food service establishments. This is especially true for fast food restaurants and the like in which a premium is placed upon quick and efficient preparation of food products. In this regard, arrangements for heating food by forced air convection have been recognized as desirable for reducing food preparation time.
Thus, the introduction of an apparatus for heating food products which overcomes many of the inherent limitations associated with conventional oven arrangements, and which is readily suited for use in commercial restaurant establishments and the like, is desirable for providing efficient, economical preparation of food products.